RoboQuad by WowWee, reviewed by Neoagent
I know what you're thinking, its just another standard WowWee RoboSapien or RoboRaptor knockoff cashcow right? WRONG! This thing is so far superior to any of WowWees other toy robots that if it walked any faster or had a weapons system the military would be using it right now.
Originally designed to be a NASA Mars rover, the RoboQuad is anything but cute by appearance. Its crab-like look and movement is so intimidating that my five year old nephew stared in wonder but never came within three feet of it, and thats the same nephew that beat up a second grader. It has both IR-Input and IR-Output scanners on it's sturdy flat head, has 72 build-in functions, and has recording/playback of up to 40 functions. Those are pretty much the standards of any WowWee robot, but the RoboQuad takes intelligence to a whole new level then any other toy robot I've ever witnessed.
It sounds like R2D2, it has 3 personality modes for three different personalities, alertness, activity, and agressiveness, it can be controlled via the remote controller or it can be completly autonomous. And when I say autonomous, I mean it in every definition of the word. It sports sound and motion detectors sensative up to 10 feet away, it learns its environment down to corners and the smallest of details, it will detect and track moving objects or individuals, react when you step infront of it (panic or attack), it will seek out anything moving in patterns out of curiousity and stay with it until it memorises said patterns and then it will move on to something else. It also sports a guard mode.
It's the first toy robot on the market that literally becomes whatever you want it to be come, and it sounds so cute and awkward that even though it looks like a 14 inch tall 3 pound mutant crab, you can not help but fall in love with it.
This is my personal choice of family gift of the year 2007 for ANY age who love robotics, AI systems, or anyone who has a sense of curiousity and humor at the same time. Keep up the great work WowWee!
Another review with pictures and videos: http://www.robotsrule.com/html/roboquad.php
- It can identify motion at a distance of about 10 feet. Once identified it can pursue the moving object
- It is a four legged robot with a chassis that is designed to move easily in any direction.
- The Roboquad’s main theme is fast movement in nearly any ground based direction and it is capable of 3 speeds of movement.
- The Roboquad can react quickly to it’s environment.
- It has a strange little head that sweeps the room with a tightly focused infrared beam
- The Roboquad can even identify the sizes of objects
- It is sensitive enough to detect the fine details in it’s environment like the edges of doorways.
